CD Reviews

North County Times -

ROCK

A "Not Them You"

Lake Trout

Palm/Rx Records

If Lake Trout's star-crossed history is any guide, you won't
hear anything from 2005's "Not Them You" on the radio. But one
listen to the Baltimore-based quintet's masterful fifth album is
enough to get you scratching your head: If there's no room on
American radio for this kind of great modern rock music, with
hooks, beats and bravery to spare, why bother with the airwaves at
all? Fans of Radiohead and Coldplay will find something familiar
and something new here, but Lake Trout's sound is distinctly their
own -- and the musicianship of "Not Them You" rivals anyone's.

Lake Trout started out nearly a decade ago as darlings of the
jam-band set, but make no mistake, these are polished pop songs on
offer here. On "Not Them You," the dynamic grooves Lake Trout lives
on are laced with lyrics of increasing maturity, compliments of
lead singer and guitarist Woody Ranere. "Riddle" could be the
band's theme song -- a wistful meditation on the pursuit of elusive
and dubious success. "It's not the game that I thought it would
be," Ranere sings. "It looks so good I want it for me."

But this is no navel-gazing whine: The catchy, Halloween-esque
piano riff supplied by multi-instrumentalist Matt Pierce propels
"Riddle" forward on top of propulsive beats fired off by dynamic
drummer Michael Lowry. While capturing a devoted fan base on the
Mid-Atlantic club circuit, Lake Trout hasn't yet broken through to
what passes for a mainstream in today's fractured music scene. When
Ranere sings on "If I Can," "It's not the same as when we
started/like so many games it gets harder now," his insights apply
equally well to the straits of romantic relationships and the
band's struggles to pursue its artistic vision.

In songs that address war and peace, materialism, maturing
relationships and the band's decade-long career of defying
categorization, Ranere offers a palette of perspectives both more
personal and more direct than Lake Trout's previous efforts. This
is a more confrontational and tangible Lake Trout, confident that
its hooks are strong enough to carry the listener into
uncomfortable territory.

The album's first single harks back to another era's civil
confrontation -- a version of "Street Fighting Man" far removed
from the raw Rolling Stones original. On its first recorded cover,
Lake Trout coats this anthem of unfocused aggression with the kind
of sugary '60s pop that competed for airplay with the more
dangerous Stones. The reinvention lets Lake Trout confront the
daunting legacy of the Glimmer Twins (Keith Richards and Mick
Jagger) and reveals the relevance of lyrics that are easy to
dismiss as dated. How to respond to a troubling and troubled war is
also the theme of "Forward March," one of album's strongest songs.
On its most political song yet, the band sheds its cultivated
obscurity to explore the helplessness many feel as war enshrouds
the nation."The captain's gone crazy," Ranere sings. "Can someone
stop him maybe / we'll see / Forward March Ö Grab a gun and aim
with me."

-- Denis Devine

B+ "Who You Fighting For?"

UB40

Rhino Records

Twenty-five years after their recording debut, Britain's
venerable pop-reggae group UB40 -- perhaps best known for the
chart-toping 1984 remake of "Red, Red Wine" -- smartly plays to its
strengths with politically minded originals alongside reworked pop
and reggae classics on "Who You Fighting For."

The best of the latter is an update of "Things You Say You
Love," The Jamaicans' vintage roots-reggae hit from the 1970s, and
a surprising Beatles artifact, "I'll Be On My Way"; more obvious is
Matumbi's seminal '70s British reggae hit "After Tonight." "Duke of
Earl" Gene Chandler's "Groovy Situation" (title-changed here to
"Good Situation") seems an odd pick, but it grows on you as the
chorus repeats.

Sticking with the tried-and-true, UB40 (still in its original
eight-man line-up) has already scored with its U.K. hit version of
the Manhattan's R&B smash "Kiss and Say Goodbye," but their
other British hit, "Who You Fighting For?" is original and more
substantial.

The title track and "Bling Bling" are also originals, condemning
war and oppression, but the better new track is "Reasons," which
employs an Indian vocal assist by hit producer/vocalist Hunterz and
Punjabi drumming to enliven the group's sometimes too-comfortable
sound.